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MAFUKU
The Editorial
The Black Panther moment
A critique of the critiques
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It’s been a month since Black Panther hit cinemas and it has thus far grossed $1billion at the box office across the world. As the dust settles and the euphoria fizzles out, what do we have left? Many reviews have talked to the euphoria around the movie, but have they thoroughly expanded on it and highlighted its importance? Having read quite a few of them and having engaged in many conversations, one keeps hearing (of course in different variations) how the film could have been more and how the film perpetuates the ills of the capitalist society that we live in. But based on the movie being a Hollywood production – how could it even be “more”?
It is key to understand that the excitement about the movie stems from several things.
Before the movie was released, its marketing capitalised on the radicalisation of pop culture that has been challenging norms around black bodies in the world: It capitalised on the dissatisfaction of people around the representation of black folks in movies, it equally capitalised on #blacklivesmatter and the #woke mindset of people. The so-called excessive excitement after its release was based on how it was one of the first major blockbusters with a mostly black cast and with a black director, outside of the usual comedic genre that black Hollywood occupies.
The movie is one of the first major films in Hollywood that presents an African utopian society – a society that we superficially all have dreamt about seeing as opposed to the picture of war and devastation that mainstream media normally portrays of Africa. The film depicts black women in strong
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and powerful ways: as an inventor and scientist, undercover spy and an all women army. The official language of Wakanda being isiXhosa, one of the official languages in South Africa, as well as the melting pot of African cultures and ethnic groups featuring in the movie – these are just some of the many themes that have also contributed to the excitement and created the “moment” that everyone was talking about.
The “moment” created expectations for the movie to not only depict a true story of the heterogeneous cultures and identities on the African continent, but also represent various facets of differently abled people and queer folks and for it to lay the foundations for revolutionary transformed society – a society that is not plagued with the malaise of capitalism. But these expectations are somewhat unfounded considering that Black Panther is a Hollywood film – how could a Marvel superhero film ever tackle the issues that revolutionaries seek to deal with?
This is not a call not to challenge and critique the problematic themes that the movie reproduces. Themes like the “white-savior”, the apparent necessity to have a white character in every mainstream movie, who in the end heroically saves the day. As if having a white male saviour in an all black cast is not ironic enough – the climax of the absurdity lies in him being a CIA agent, since the CIA has historically wreaked havoc on the African continent. Read more here.
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VIDEO OF THE WEEK
This is what spatial division looks like
Waiting in endless queues for busses and taxis, squeezing in the back of heavily loaded trucks, spending hours to commute to work from their remote homes, day in, day out - that’s the reality for many working class people from Khayelitsha and other communities around Cape Town. The anarchist collective Soundz of the South has now produced a video that powerfully visualises this daily struggle. Their production gives a strong commentary on South Africa’s extreme inequality, implanted by the spatial segregation of the Apartheid system and continuously colonising South African’s black working class. Combining the power of hip hop and spoken word with strong visual impressions, the video expresses the daily struggle - Zabalaza.
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AIDC Library & Resource Centre
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AIDC hosts one of the most exciting libraries of progressive books, magazines and documentary films. Covering issues such as globalisation, finacialisation, political economy, climate change, energy, food sovereignty and so many other essential topics for activists today, the collection contains important material for those wanting to come to terms with the various dimensions of the current global crisis as well as content about the post Apartheid transition.
More than 8000 books, monographs, magazines and journals can be borrowed by members of the Resource and Information Centre. At the same time, we also offer quiet spaces where activists can access the online catalogue, read and study.
Knowledge is power. The AIDC Resource Centre is the gateway towards enhanced understanding, information and knowledge.
You can access the online catalogue here
Contact and opening hours:
129 Rochester Road, Observatory, Cape Town
9am - 5pm | +27 21 447 5770 | info@aidc.org.za
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BY SIYABULELA MAMA
What's the significance of Black Panther for Black people in South Africa?
A friend asked me that question in a conversation about the movie.
We live in an age where Black South Africans in particular, and Africans in general are plagued by the notion that English is the measure of one’s astuteness, that your inability to speak English divulges your unintelligence. Hence, we tend to abandon our own languages – forgetting that they contribute to defining our identity and the true meaning of who we are as a human species.
After watching Black Panther – and after dancing to Busiswa and Bhizer’s song ‘Gobisoqolo’ and singing along to Babes Wodumo’s ‘Wololo’ in the imaginary African country of Wakanda – I felt the need for every Black South African to watch the movie. The use of isiXhosa as an official Wakandan language is quite a game changer – as it redefines and changes our relation to indigenous languages and re-emphasizes their importance in our identity as Africans.
Furthermore, the reiteration of Camagu in the rituals of Wakanda is in itself an advocacy for Africans to take pride in their traditions and rich culture. This pride is not only a reflection of their uniqueness but also indicates the number of cultures existing besides the monopolized Eurocentric notions of cultures. Equally to European cultures, African cultures deserve to be told as an indicator of our diversity and multiculturalism as a human species.
Despite Black Panther not displaying womxn in traditionally influential positions like a queen, they still occupy other diverse positions of power: Nakia, a well-travelled cosmopolitan spy for Wakanda; General Okoye, a hard-core talented fighter, head of the military; not to mention Shuri, the Wakandan princess and scientist.
After watching the movie, my niece said: “One day I want to be like Shuri”. To me, hearing this was one of the major impacts of the movie on Black South African women. At the same time, the appreciation for one’s culture and language represents the major significance of the movie to Black South Africans in general. This significance, I believe, should not go underestimated as people levy their valid criticisms against the movie. Whilst there are points of improvement, we must also note that these achievements have an immense positive impact on Black South Africans in itself.
Siyabulela Mama is a writer, environmental, social and political activist, trade unionist and permaculturist. He is a community educator at Port Elizabeth Amandla Resource & Information Centre (ARIC) and works in a number of community gardens around Port Elizabeth.
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About us
Oh no, not another newsletter! Don’t we all get some interesting newsletters full of interesting content – and yet we never read them? Luckily, this one hopes to be the exact opposite. Read more here.
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